Faculty

Paulette Arnold
Paulette has loved schools and the process of education for as long as she can remember. Since discovering Waldorf in 1989 she has been a home-schooling mother/teacher, a kindergarten and first grade assistant, a substitute teacher, and an adult educator. Paulette is an avid student of the history of education, and of Anthroposophy. Paulette holds a B.A. in Modern Languages and Secondary Teaching Certificate from Knox College, and is an Arcturus graduate.

Jutta Johanne Distler
A native of Denmark, Jutta has lived in Chicago since 1989 where she has earned her living as a professional musician touring in Europe, Canada, and across America playing violin, mandolin and guitar. She began teaching folk dance at the Chicago Waldorf School with her husband in 2005 and has been the speech instructor for Arcturus since 2008. She holds a Creative Speech degree from the Goetheannum's Schule fur Sprachgestaltung und Schauspiel, Dornach, Switzerland.

David Dozier
David received a BFA from Layton School of Art and Design in Milwaukee. He studied painting and sculpture for many years, both privately and at the Art Student's League of New York. He has been working in the fine arts and commercials arts since 1973 and has exhibited around the country. He has a Masters of Education from Antioch New England Graduate School and currently teaches at the Chicago Waldorf School. David holds a BFA, Layton School of Art and Design, Milwaukee and a M.Ed., Antioch New England.

Claude Driscoll
Claude was born In Paris, France and came to America at age 21. She worked as a kindergarten assistant at the Chicago Waldorf School and was then hired as a lead kindergarten teacher in the Great Oaks Waldorf School in Evanston. She rejoined the CWS faculty as handwork teacher while completing her teacher training at Sunbridge College and later returned to Sunbridge for her certification in Remedial Education where she has pursued her life-long love of exploring the healing aspects of art in education. She has been a teacher at Chicago Waldorf School for the past 19 years. Claude received both her Waldorf Teacher Certification and her 3-year Remedial Certification at Sunbridge College.

Marianne Fieber
Marianne Fieber is currently the faculty chair and sits on the leadership council and board of trustees at Four Winds Waldorf School in Warrenville, IL., where she has also been a class teacher. In May of 2005 she received her Waldorf Teaching Certificate from Arcturus, where she has taught the drama course since 2004-05 and sections of the administration course. She has performed in numerous productions in Chicago as well as toured across the state, country and throughout Europe. Marianne holds an M.S. Ed. in Waldorf School Administration and Community Development from Sunbridge College in Chestnut Ridge, NY.

Leukos Goodwin
Luke manages the administrative functions of the Chicago Waldorf School. He holds a BA in Art History from Davidson College, an MA Ed. from Antioch University and an Ed.D (pending dissertation) from the University of Toledo. His Waldorf experience includes teaching stints at Pine Hill Waldorf School in New Hampshire, Ashwood Waldorf School in Maine and Cape Ann Waldorf School in Massachusetts, where he served as Executive Committee Chair, College of Teachers Chair, Faculty Chair, Pedagogical Chair, Evaluation Committee Chair and as a member of the Board of Trustees. In addition to his work with Waldorf education, Luke's career included teaching in the Sylvania Schools public school district in Ohio. Luke is a die-hard Red Sox fan.

Michael Holdrege
A resident of Vienna, Austria for 14 years, he initially taught biology at the Rudolf Steiner School before co-founding the Institute for Goethe Studies, where he served as a full-time faculty member. After returning to the USA, Michael helped found the high school of the Chicago Waldorf School, where he currently teaches biology and economics. Michael is also on the faculty of the Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program in Wilton, NH and a board member of the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute in East Troy, Wisconsin. Michael is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, attended Emerson College in Sussex, England and did his teacher training at the Seminar for Waldorf Pedagogy in Stuttgart, Germany.

Jim Kotz
Jim received a degree in Applied Math and Physics from the University of Michigan, and was later granted a graduate fellowship at Wayne State University. While in Grad school, Jim wrote a thesis on the electrical and thermal properties of a particular conductive glass, which now has application in modern computer memory chips. It was also during this time that Jim was first introduced to Waldorf education through a lab associate. After completion of his PhD, he worked in the electronics industry for a number of years and later completed his Waldorf teacher training while in Southern California, where he began to teach part-time at the local Waldorf High School. Jim is now full-time with the Chicago Waldorf School and enjoys working with colleagues to strengthen an already well-integrated high school program to further meet the educational needs of 21st century adolescents, especially in regard to their relationship to science and technology.

Nancy Melvin
Nancy's Waldorf teaching experience spans the last ten years as a class teacher, handwork teacher, music teacher and kindergarten assistant. She also worked as Administrator for the Great Oaks School. She has four years of Post Graduate and MFA work at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Textile Arts and Art History and Aesthetics. She continues to cultivate natural dyes for wool, knit dolls and toys and teach the pedagogy of Waldorf handwork. Currently she is teaching handwork at the Chicago Waldorf High School and in the Arcturus Program. Nancy has a BA in Photography, Bennington; MA, Social Science Theory, University of Chicago. She is an Arcturus graduate.

Jeff Spade
Jeff has been active as a teacher in the Waldorf movement for the past twenty- three years. He was the vocal music director at the Kimberton Waldorf School from 1988-1996, and director of vocal and instrumental music and drama at the Rudolf Steiner Upper School in Manhattan from 1996-2002. After leaving New York City, he spent four years as mentor, advisor, and guest teacher at the Chicago Waldorf School, the Washington Waldorf School, the Rudolf Steiner School in Manhattan, The Waldorf School of Baltimore and others. He resides in Chicago, Illinois, where he is the Director of Music for the Chicago Waldorf School. Jeff holds a B.S. in Music Education and a M.M. in Vocal Performance from West Chester University, Pennsylvania.

Elisabeth Swisher
Elisabeth was born in Austria, and was fortunate to join the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, Germany for the last 5 years of her primary education. She graduated from the Academy of Music in Vienna in 1979. She did her Waldorf teacher training in Stuttgart, and has taught in Waldorf schools and training institutions in Austria and the US since then. In 2002 she went to China to teach English at a public high school in Shanxi, and also to travel. After she returned from China she opened her own Waldorf Kindergarten in Hyde Park, Chicago. She now visits China twice a year for extended periods to help mentor and teach a dynamic and growing population of Waldorf teachers there.

Nancy Szymanski
Nancy began studying theater at Illinois State University and then made a dramatic switch to chemistry. She was a research assistant in the chemical industry for several years. From 1990 she studied watercolor painting, training under various artists in the Chicago area. Developing programs and teaching at a parent cooperative school led her to Arcturus, where she received her Waldorf teacher training. Nancy took a class from first through eighth grade and is currently in 2nd grade with her second group of children. She has mentored several grade school teachers and is the proud parent of two Chicago Waldorf School graduates.

Carol Triggiano
Carol has been a teacher at the Chicago Waldorf School for the past 18 years. She graduated from National Louis University in 1972 with a degree in education and English. Carol taught for several years in both public and private schools and for ten years was a lecturer on the art of storytelling. She found Waldorf education while searching for a school for her own children. She also spent her first three years at the Chicago Waldorf School as an Early Childhood lead teacher; then she took a class from first through eighth grade and is currently in 7th grade with her second group of children. Carol is a graduate of the Arcturus Waldorf Teacher Training Program where she currently teaches courses on storytelling and language arts. She have been an outside evaluator, consultant and mentor to several Waldorf schools, including Te Ra Waldorf School in New Zealand. In her tenure at CWS Carol have served as the grade school chair, Teacher Development Committee representative, AWSNA delegate, mentor and Chair of the College of Teachers.

John Trevillion
John was born in England and educated in Canada and the United States. He has taught in Waldorf Schools since 1982, most of these as a teacher of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classes at the Detroit and Chicago Waldorf Schools. He is now in his 9th year of teaching at the CWS. For 4 years at CWS he supported the middle grade class teachers (mentoring teachers, and teaching blocks and math tracks), and also taught high school history. In that capacity he has devoted considerable time researching the scientific revolution of our epoch as both symptom and agent of change on the evolution of consciousness. He is currently the teacher of the 8th grade at CWS. Over the years he has also taught many workshops and teacher education courses in the middle grade sciences and math/geometry. He has also written many class plays, a number of them about major scientific figures. His most ambitious works include musicals about the life and work of Johannes Kepler, entitled The Music of the Spheres (published and still available by AWSNA Press), and Archimedes.

Cynthia Trevillion
Cynthia received a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a Master's of Waldorf Education from Mercy College of Detroit. She taught for many years at the Detroit Waldorf School where she took a class from grades one to eight. During this time she completed her training with the Association for a Healing Education and was a colleague of its founder, Mary Jo Oresti. Upon moving to Chicago she took a class from grades five to eight at the Chicago Waldorf School. She is currently an educational support teacher and teaches some middle school math and main lesson blocks.

Frances Vig
Frances was born and educated in England. She graduated from Christ Church College Canterbury, Kent with a Dip. Ed and received her Waldorf Certification at Emerson College in Forest Row where she focused on sculpture, painting and drawing. She is one of the founding members of the Chicago Waldorf School where she has taken two classes one through eight and has also been a subject teacher in the arts. She is currently a high school teacher and class advisor focusing on the sculptural arts and metalwork. Frances is a member of the College of Teachers of CWS, has worked in teacher development, served as college chair and as a member of the Board of Trustees. Frances has taught in various Anthroposophical trainings adult trainings in North America. She is a member of the Pedagogical Section Council America of North America and a representative on the Leadership Council of AWSNA.

Christine Culbert
Christine holds a BSN from Northwestern University and worked in the area of maternal-child health in hospital settings for 10 years. Now an RN, she completed her Waldorf teacher training and B.A. at the Waldorf Institute of Mercy College in Detroit. After serving as a lead teacher in the Parent-Child program at the Chicago Waldorf School from 1995-2001, Christine began her work as an Early Childhood teacher, also serving as Early Childhood Level Chair. She is a member of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America. She is also the proud mother of two Waldorf students and personally enjoys playing piano, lyre and recorder as well as handwork arts including spinning, knitting, felting and dyeing.

Laura Donkel
Laura has taught in the CWS Early Childhood program for 8 years. She holds a BA in International Business and Spanish from St. Norbert College as well as an MS in Advertising from the School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She received her Waldorf teacher training certification from the Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program in Chicago. Laura is the proud parent of two children, one of whom graduated from Chicago Waldorf School last year and the other of whom is a freshman in the high school.

Susan Bruck
Susan grew up in Detroit, Michigan and Rock Island, Illinois. She received a BS in Chemistry and JD (Jurist Doctorate) from the University of Illinois. Susan also attended the Art Institute of Chicago. After discovering Waldorf education, Susan completed her teacher training at the Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program and began teaching in the Early Childhood program at Chicago Waldorf School. In the past she has split her teaching duties between Early Childhood and the Parent-Child program. In addition to her teaching at Chicago Waldorf School, Susan taught Hebrew for 6 years and plays clarinet with the 100% Kosher Ham It Up Band at her synagogue, as well as with clarinet group the Licorice Sticks. She also conducts trainings on the art of puppetry.

Nancy Matson
Nancy has a long history of excellence with the Chicago Waldorf School including 6 years as an assistant with the Parent-Child program, primary teacher for the inaugural year of the Nursery program, 6 years as an assistant in the Kindergarten program and 5 years and counting as a lead teacher in the Kindergarten program. A graduate of the Arcturus Teacher Training Program, Nancy also attended SIU and received an Associate Degree in Fine Arts and Graphics from the American Academy of Art in Chicago. Nancy and her husband, Al, have four children, all of whom attended the Chicago Waldorf School. She enjoys doing anything with her family, working with children and their families, learning more about Anthroposophy, painting, gardening, and, of course, laughter.

Naomi Studebaker
Naomi's discovery of Rudolf Steiner's work so soon after graduating from Miami University in Ohio with a degree in Secondary Education was a life changing event. The 36 years in the Waldorf movement includes grade sch. class teaching (4 Winds and Esperanza), and Early Childhood (EC) work (Oak Park home & 4W). During her 12 yr EC home program, both the Four Winds Sch. Initiative (1994) and the Singing Winds Sch. Initiative (1999) grew out of cooperative efforts between herself and her parent body. Naomi was active in Admin. and leadership positions in all settings, including founding yrs board work at CWS. While at Esperanza, Naomi earned her Masters in Educ. with Special Education certification in 4 areas. Naomi continues this interest by working with Janet Oliver to become a HANDLE practitioner working with sensory motor reflex integration. Naomi is currently teaching parent/child classes at 4W, is available for individual appointments, and is preparing to join the mentoring work supporting the rapidly growing Waldorf EC movement in China.